LOVIE 281
and gall" might have been caught together with something
about "maggots and gizzard"; and to a very strained ear, in the
midst of that whirligig din, there might have come syllables
that sounded like "the worms of Herod" and "the lice of
Pharaoh." But beyond a wish that No-man should quench his
thirst with the urine of dogs, and have sand for bread, and that
his bowels should burst with those of Judas, and his skin itch
with the scabs of Job, it would have been the general drift,
rather than any particular details, that the hearers would have
carried away.
More articulate perhaps at the end, before the distracted old
man scrambled to his feet, would have sounded his vague but
reiterated prediction that No-man hadn't done with him yet,
that he would in fact make him eat with Old Funky, drink with
Old Funky, lie down with Old Funky, till he should pray "for
Tummery' to cover him," and for "Maumbury to hide him,"
and for "the fishes of Chesil to carry him quick into the pit!"
Having got possession of the "fiver," and watched No-man's
precious pocket-book being hidden away from sight in Wizzie's
purse, Mummy Urgan greeted her husband's return from the
top of the steps. "You and Popsy best be off to show now.
What's the matter with 'ee then? Doesn't 'ee mind what us
'cided on? Hasn't us argied long enough about her going with
she? What be up to then? What be mumbling about? 'Twas
thee bubbled us into all this brabblement; and 'tis lucky I've
got a head on me, or Lordy knows where us 'ud be by now! In
jail maybe, for all you gone and done!"
Old Funky made no reply. If he wasn't by rights as old as
his name he looked a deal older as he squatted down on the
bed and shut his eyes. Many people when things have been too
much for them, or when they've received an overwhelming
shock, follow the example of Julius Caesar and hide their
eyes; but Old Funky neither "muffled his face in his mantle"
nor brazened it out. He just sat on that bed, the bed where
Wizz had given birth to Lovie, with his lips working like a
monkey's and kept his eyes tight shut. He hadn't cast a single
glance at her since she entered the caravan, and this piqued
her in some curious manner; and as she stood talking to Mrs.
Urgan and Popsy, with the caravan-door swinging on its hinges
in the wind, she edged round a trifle so as to keep that figure
on the bed in sight.